School When YOU Were a Kid v Your Kids...

I don't recall the numbers and times and stuff, but my daughter does not have a chalkboard in her Kindergarten classroom. Everything is done with a SmartBoard. It's way cool, but strange to be in a classroom with no chalkboard.

Hi R.-

So very LONG ago...I can hardly remember...

But walked MILES to school...

UP HILL

Both ways...

LOL
michele/cat

Hmm, I can't remember the exact hours but I think the school day was about the same length, and I believe we generally had a 30 to 40 minute recess and lunch, plus a morning and afternoon recess, 10 or 15 minutes each. We got out around memorial day and started right after labor day.
My kindergarten teacher had a piano, she played and we sang every day!
I don't remember anyone's parent ever being in the classroom, unless there was a performance of some kind.
If you lived in town, you walked to school. If you lived more than a few miles away you took the school bus.
The playground surface was solid concrete, and the play structures were solid metal, hard and hot, BRUTAL!
If you didn't bring your own lunch, there was one option, and it was usually some kind of meat/gravy/potato thing.
I have very fond memories of my grade school years but I bet my own kids would be appalled at the stuff I (happily) endured every day!

I am a bit confused as to where the numbers came from. Like Christmas break the only difference is they call it winter break. It always changed depending on where Christmas fell. My kids have had the nine day and as long as two weeks.

The summer break is shorter because they crammed a mess of stupid days off for teachers meetings and enrichment and whatever else they can get by with though a few are supposed to be flex days in case it snows. I guess I am saying the school year hasn't changed in length since the turn of the century (exaggerating there).

My school days were seven hours all the way through as are my kids school days now.

I must add though, for clarity, my kids are in the same school district I grew up in.

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Our calendar isn't too much different, but here are some other differences I notice.

School patrols were posted at the corners near the school before lunch and after lunch period. Many kids walked home for lunch. Totally unheard of today. It wouldn't even be allowed if someone asked, unless the parent came in to sign out and pick up the kid. When I was in elementary school, patrols stood out at the corners and held their flags out for kids that walked to school. Now, patrols have "walking lines" and the school patrol actually walks a route to school with the group of kids, picking up and dropping off kids along the way. When I was a kid, you either walked or rode the bus. No one got driven by their parents every day. Today it seems like there is an overabundance of parents driving their kids every morning and every afternoon. Kids are a lot less independent at the elementary age today than when I was in school.

All school recess was after lunch each day. I couldn't tell you how long it was, but it felt like a good amount of time to us. We also had phy ed class every day, and the teacher would lead us in kickball or other games outside when it was nice. My kids get phy ed only a rotating schedule with Chinese and Science. We never had foreign language until high school.

One big difference, we never had homework until 4th grade. My kids have had significant homework starting in kindergarten.

The scariest discipline threat to a kid when I was in elementary was that if you misbehaved you may have to "stay after school" (kind of like a personal detention with your teacher). That would be unheard of in today's world. Can you imagine a teacher just holding a student to stay after class without any kind of notice to parents, having them miss their bus or whatever? The teachers at my elementary didn't use a paddle, but there was plenty of ear pulling in first grade.

The only parents that came to school were the "room Moms" in the early grades, and only for the parties on Halloween and Valentine's Day. Otherwise, parents only came in for conferences or singing programs. And conferences were parent-teacher ONLY. Now all of ours have to be parent-teacher-child.

More (or less?) of an answer than you asked for!
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I'll start with my children (who aren't public school aged yet.)

One can choose to have their child in school for half days (4.5 hours) or whole days for kindergarten. One must pay extra if they want their child to be in kindergarten full time (approx. 8:45 - 3:00). We live outside of city limits on a peninsula, 25 minutes from town. We have an Olympia zip code, but we live in an area that is more like a very small rural town.

((farm stands and small grocery/gas station, shellfish farms (beach front property owners lease their land to farmers/harvesters and my husband's current boss has acres of waterfront property) our own little parks, docks, and we have a relationship with the Korean family who owns the general store. Geoducks for coffee/oysters/eggs? LOVE having a tab and being able to conduct trades!))

We are a diverse socioeconomic population. A few farms, many multimillion dollar homes (on the water), trailers and cabins, 1960's "summer homes" renovated for year round living, and newer mid range homes as well. Our little area's property taxes are are all funneled to our ONE school (k-8). It is a well funded school because we don't have to share and share the "island's" tax money. The school offers small classroom sizes, lots of recesses, blended grades, and a nice facility. Summer break is early June - Now. Not sure about the other breaks. I'm entertaining the idea of having one million children (actually just three ;-), and homeschooling my kids on the beach, and splitting work hours with my tidally based husband. Hey, a girl can dream?
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Tangent:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Such an excellent video!!! I'll admit, it's a bit dismissive of the medical reality of ADHD (at least in my opinion), but it brings up a lot of brilliant points on how our system is structured, why, and who gets left out.
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Me?

I hated school from day one. I was gifted (at least that's how the schools dubbed me), and thus, was able to participate in some neat programs (hands on learning!!!). My mama had home schooled my sister and I until I was in first grade. We had a few private tutors for music and science, but mostly learned from our parents. I was an early reader and loved math. It wasn't a struggle to encourage my curiosity and appetite for education and information, but being IN school was a huge struggle. I was an awkward/odd kid and *school* didn't make much sense to me.

My folks pulled me out OFTEN. Admittedly, I also faked illness to get out of school. I despised being in there.

((side note: THAT DARNED BOOK you suggested is turning my world upside down!!! I got it to "understand" my husband and ended up reading about myself (also). Phew. This is the Ephie-gets-to-know-herself year, so there are lots of WHAT????!!!!???? moments along the way.))

In our school K-5, we had a 60 min. break for lunch, and two other 45. minute recesses. *Sigh*, my favorite part of the day. We went to school at 8:30am and were released at 2:47pm (I think).

I don't remember how long our breaks were, but it didn't matter because my family would travel a lot. We would be pulled out of school for a few months of every year, and would go to ________ where we would continue our education, write reports, take pictures, draw pictures, study the fauna/flora, the indigenous culture, music and art of the area, and would make friends (and sandcastles).

Middle school was...a shock. My family structure shifted, we didn't travel anymore, and I had less time with my folks, sister, and on our land. Also I HAD to go to school. Breaks? 15/20 minutes three times a day (I think?) and 45 min lunch. That was a hard time for me (for many extending reasons), and I really lost it. I went from disliking school to absolutely abhorring it. My grades went from being top of the class/school to the bottom.

Grade 9 (one hour off campus lunch)/10 (30 min on campus lunch, 10 min. breaks in between classes), I don't remember the schedule. I skipped a LOT of school. Began dropping out.

Grade 11 /1st half of 12th Grade!! Running Start WOOT WOOT!!!!

And then I dropped out of community college and high school, went to Asia, came home, moved out, worked in a cafe, participated in a warehouse art collective the rest of the time, and pursued self directed education. I traveled the country and made music/art/politics.
.....
A handful of years later, motherhood! The greatest education of all. We'll see where it goes! I often consider going back to school. I start a training on Monday at an organization that I am in love with. I am titillated and have butterflies all OVER MY BODY. I think I may have found my calling. Wish me luck! The education of life never ceases!

Gawd R., I don't even remember!
ROLF at myself

Kindergarten: I went for four hours. We had show and tell, and we played firehouse, grocery store and at recess I remember riding a big tricycle around this one tree with its roots so big that they made the cement around it cracked and rise up.
Kindergarten for my son: 8 hours. Recess, Lunch time, (not sure how long), he knows addition and subtraction, two digit addition, writes sentences etc. (when i was in kindergarten I did not learn these at all).

He's in first grade now. So far I have noticed and appreciated the lessons that these teachers teach because my son is so much father ahead than I was at his age. :-D

I don't remember the exact number of hours in elementary, but I would guess 7 - I'm sure we were there by 8:30 and I know I was home by 4:00 (1/2 hour bus ride).
We had a morning recess, 15 minutes, after our snack. And a 40 minute lunch recess after we ate lunch.
School was always out the first week of June, and we started back the day after Labor Day. Two weeks Christmas break, one week spring break.

My children have it MUCH better! They have a fun school.

Start school at 8:15, with a 15 minute recess.
Bell rings; they go in for Main Lesson (a 2 hour block on one subject for a few weeks - for in-depth learning).
Snack, then 15 minute recess.
Two subjects.
15 minutes for lunch and 30 for recess.
Three more subjects.
3:20 dismissal.

But their subjects are:
Movement
Woodworking
Painting
Sculpting
Spanish,
German
Chorus
Strings (violin/cello/bass)
Gardening
Eurhythmy
Gym
Nature Walk (when they go down to the creek)
Math
Grammar

The school has such a peaceful, nurturing environment, that when you go into a classroom, you don't want to leave. Sure wish I could have gone there!!

Students get more days "off" in between than when we were in school. At least here in NY, they get a week in December and another week in February. If you add in snow days and then other random days... you still get 180 instructional days per year- which is the same as when we were in school.

Recess, well... I went to a private school and we got 20 minutes at some point during the day and another 20 minutes after lunch. Two hours of recess in elementary school seems excessive to me.

Hours per day... 6.5 here for public school students regardless of grade level. For me? 8:20-3:40 every day regardless of grade level.

The biggest changes that I have seen surround accountability and the need for teachers and schools to openly share their practices and outcomes. When I was in school, my parents wrote an astronomical check each year for our tuition and then were pretty much told to "stay out of it" and let them do their jobs.

Lots of things have changed, but I am curious as to where you grew-up because it sounds vastly different then when I was in school!

Elementary
7 hours
45 minute recess
Summer was end of May to September
Winter was a bit over 2 weeks
We had gym every day

Highschool
8 hours 15 minutes
Lunch 25 minutes
10 minute passing periods